Indonesian is, to say the least, an obscure language. Few people outside of the country speak it, with the exception of Malaysia. (Apparently Malayu is to Indonesian as British English is to American English.) Many of its words come from Dutch (thank the traders), Arabic (thank the Muslims), or English (thank the media).
It’s the easiest language I’ve ever tried to learn: no past/present/future tenses, no masculine or feminine, no agreement according to first- or second-person. Very little grammar, actually. Words are pronounced as they are spelled, but when you see a c (which we English-speakers could easily do without), just make a ch sound, and you're set.
Vonce taught me a few words, numbers and phrases in her language. When I realized we might actually be visiting the country I found free language lessons online (www.learningindonesian.com), downloaded the lessons to my Fuse, printed out the study guides, and got serious. OK, not that serious. I studied for a few days, then forgot about it for a week or two, then picked it up again for another few days. In my travels about the internet I came across a free online flash card site called Quizlet, and surprisingly enough, someone had already created the flash cards for the Learning Indonesian lessons. I cannot tell you how helpful Quizlet was. Many of its learning exercises are games, and because it’s fun I sometimes lost track of how much time I’d spent on it. Wish school had been like that ...
I have been in the country for all of 6 days and I’m surprised by how much of this language I can actually understand. I have been trying to use my language with the hotel staff and Vonce’s family and made some absolutely horrendous mistakes, yet no one has laughed at me or corrected me. Perhaps they’re in shock that a bule (foreigner) would make the effort to speak with them. Or maybe they’re just kind. No matter: I enjoy trying to communicate with them and it’s fun pretending – even if only for a few minutes – that I’m a local.
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